Lost Fools and Wandering Wagtails
by Alex T. Wallman
Summary: A day that was already filled with fate gets sent into overdrive when an ex-messiah reawakens his powers. M for Language and future violence
1. Chapter 1 Dreams and Truth

Lost Fools and Wandering Wagtails

Chapter 1: Dreams and Truth

By: Alex T. Wallman

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Dood

Authors Note: This is basically me going out on a limb here and saying screw you to Atlus by finding a way to have Minato survive. How, you might ask, but listen closely because in this fic Sahashi Minato is Arisato Minato. There is a secret behind how and you can message me with your theories.

I have a few ideas for new personae, but I am always welcome to suggestions.

Anyone who would like to suggest a social link, go for it because I only have a few. Also, let it be known that each social link will end with a new persona. Those few being:

Izumo House – Fool/Judgment: Hastur (Fool) [I/XX]

Musubi – Chariot: Behemoth [VII]

Karasuba – Death: Grim Reaper [XIII]

Homura – Tower: Yog-Sothoth [XVI]

Kazehana – Lovers [VI]

Matsu – Hermit [IX]

Miya – Hierophant: The Lonely God [V]

Takami – Temperance [XIV]

That is all. Read, enjoy, and Review!

~}{~

"_We're all stories in the end._

_Just make it a good one._

_A daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away…_

_You'll dream about that box._

_It'll never leave you._

_Big and little at the same time._

_Brand new and ancient._

_And the Bluest Blue ever."_

-The Doctor (Matt Smith), The Big Bang Two.

~}{~

'Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!' I thought as I ran, pulling the fetish miko away from the lightning-throwing twins who were pursuing us. This day could not get any worse could it- NO! I take that back! Best not to tempt fate.

This day HAS sucked though, no doubt about that. I mean, I failed to get into university (for the second time), and now I'm being chased by two girls who toss lightning about willy-nilly.

'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!' I thought as I charged down an alley, trying to find a door to duck into to get away from these crazed, and now that I notice it BDSM gear clad, twins. The alley ended in a small open area that was about five square meters. 'Fuck! Am I really going to die here, worthless and nothing?'

**_'Does it really take thou to be at the end of thy life to hear my words once more, little Fool? Or is it that thou hast stagnated for too long? It matters not, thou knowst my power and my name, why is it that thou dost not call me?'_**

'E-Eh? I thought that those were just dreams…' I trail off as I remembered the dreams that I've had all my life; the sky and moon turning green, water turning to blood, strange monsters born from the suppressed feelings of humanity, a school turning into a twisted Tower of Demise, of Death, of the Fall, of SEES, and I smiled. I opened my eyes and realized that there was truth in those dreams, that they were not the imaginings of a creative mind but my own experiences carved into my very soul. My heart slowing into a state of controlled pounding as I breathed out one word.

*Ba-Bump*

"Per…"

*Ba-Bump*

"So…"

*Ba-Bump*

"Na!"

There was the sound of glass shattering around me as what looked to be a pair of tarot cards shattered in my hand, I knew that Orpheus was answering my call but it was rare for me to summon more then one persona at a time. I didn't let curiosity overcome me and waited to hear them announce themselves, something which I hadn't the need to wait long for.

_**I am thou,**_

_**Thou art I,**_

_**From the Sea of thy Soul I cometh once more,**_

**From the Depths of thy Psyche I claw,**

_**I am Orpheus, The Master of Strings.**_

**I am Azathoth, The Daemon Sultan.**

Azathoth was not a name that I was familiar with but that didn't matter to me because I could research it later. Based on what I could tell from the feeling Orpheus gave me he had regressed to the same state as the first time I summoned him whereas Azathoth knew: **Cleave,** **Sonic Punch, Double Fangs, Evil Touch, Tentarafoo, Hunger of The Daemon Sultan,** and another one that I couldn't quite make out. The lightning twins faltered at the sight of Orpheus and Azathoth as they hung in the air behind me, and asked, "T-The Hell are those monsters?"

"How rude. They are facets of my soul, now on to business I believe. Azathoth take vanguard, Orpheus stay back and act as directed." I ordered the Personae before me, slipping into my old 'leader' persona. This also provided me with my first real look at Azathoth, from what I can see it (he? It sounds like a he) has a wild mane of grey-black hair, and its forearms are well muscled and ended in grotesque claws. The twins charged Azathoth, their long black hair flowing behind them as electricity danced between their bodies.

"Orpheus! **Agi**!" I called, Orpheus responded by strumming his lyre, which caused a blossom of fire to erupt in front of the more cautious twin. The girl stumbled backwards away from the flame while her twin called, "Hibiki!"

I didn't leave them a chance to stand together once more and attack again, I kept my eyes on Azathoth and stated, "Azathoth… **Sonic Punch**."

Azathoth's fist lashed out and broke the sound barrier as it crashed down beside the bustier (and angrier) twin. I let my face fall into a neutral expression and said, "Get out of here. Both of those attacks were meant as warnings, I did not miss. The next time you attack those attacks will connect. Now go."

"Keh! Let's go Hibiki!" The twins stalked out of the small enclosure. I turned to the miko and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Ah! Y-yes! Musubi is okay!" The girl, Musubi, answered. She was cute, not beautiful like Mitsuru, or pretty like Yukari-san, but cute like Chihiro-chan or Fuuka-san had been. The second thing I noticed was that her bust was… impressive to say the least. The girl's face was flushed but it was probably due how much running we had done.

"Your name's Musubi? Nice to meet you, I'm Ari-Sahashi Minato." I said, quickly correcting myself before I gave anything away.

"Ah! Thank you for saving me, Minato-san!" Musubi said with a bow. I was about to respond but I was interrupted by a sound that I could only compare to the sound of a **Jotun**, a **Minotaur**, a **Gigas**, and **The Reaper** screwing while attempting to eat one another. It was the most terrifying thing I have ever heard of, thought of, or gained a mental image of. My lives will have been good ones if I never experienced any of that thought again.

Musubi proceeded to collapse and complained, "I'm hungry~."

I was both cursing and in awe of whatever fiend had the idea to create an organ that could create a sound so horrifying.

~}{~

I watched Musubi scarf down slice after slice of the pizza that I had bought on the way back to my place. Musubi was attempting to tell me something through a mouthful of food but I encouraged her to finish eating before telling me.

"_**Quite the stomach, this maiden doth possess.' **_Orpheus murmured inside my head to which Azathoth responded, **"Food… I… Want food…"**

Back when I had been Arisato Minato I had never heard my Personae speaking in my head, but hearing them now was rather interesting, even if Orpheus tended to state the obvious while Azathoth talked about how tasty things looked.

"_**We can hear thy thoughts, Fool." **_Oh. Okay. That was interesting. What am I thinking about now?

"_**GREAT ZEUS' BEARD! That is horrifying, Fool!"**_ Yep, they definitely know what I think.

"_**Pay attention to the maiden, Fool. She looks to be ready to say something."**_ Okay, we'll talk later. _**"Yes. Later. After I purge my mind of this ungodly image…"**_

"Minato-san really is a good person! First, you saved me and now you're giving me food. I wish that someone like you could be my 'Ashikabi'…"

"And what might an 'Ashikabi' be?" I asked, intrigued by this word, what it meant to Musubi, and what those lightning twins may or may not have to do with all of this.

**_"With thy luck Fool, it is a guarantee."_** Weren't you going to be quiet for a bit?

"All 'Sekirei' are searching for their 'Ashikabi', the person who they will fight, and fight, and fight for, so they can Ascend!" Musubi gushed as she edged closer to me. I'm fucked aren't I, Orpheus?

**_"Indeed thou art Fool. If thou paid closer attention, thou may have noticed her cheeks flushing when she moved closer to thee."_** You didn't tell me, why?

"_**It did not seem to be of consequence."**_ Oh, I see. Have a mental image. _**"ZEUS DAMMIT, FOOL!"**_

At that point, Musubi had managed to clamber onto me in a very suggestive manner and whispered, "Minato-san…"

I kept leaning backwards in an attempt to keep the now panting Musubi from doing anything, but she leaned with me and ended up on top of me. Then she kissed me. I have to say she is good at kissing.

"_**Indeed, Fool. Based on the memories of thy previous romantic encounters, only the Velvet maiden and the heiress were better at kissing than this maiden."**_ Elizabeth and Mitsuru, eh? Yeah… They were pretty good at the romantic stuff… HOLY SHIT DID MUSUBI JUST SPROUT WINGS OF LIGHT!

"_**I-It seems so, Fool."**_ At least I'm not the only person(a) who is confused. I mean seriously, she sprouted pink wings of light what is this Tales of Symphonia?

SMASH

**Thou hast formed the Chariot Social Link.**

**It will guide thy destiny.**

Oh. Cool.

"Number 88, Musubi will be your Sekirei forever and ever, my Ashikabi-sama…" Musubi murmured as she embraced me. Then my phone went off. Damned phones ruining my ro-I mean heartwarming moments.

"_**Of course thou did."**_ Shut up Orpheus!

"Hello?" I answered, only to be met with the sound of someone singing that song from video games that plays when you achieve something.

"Congratulations, Young Man! You have been chosen to be an Ashikabi!" The strange, clearly insane man shouted at me through the phone.

"Sir, if you don't start making sense or at least introduce yourself, I'm going to hang up." I told the idiot of a man with his stupid white hair.

"_**I have white hair…"**_ Yeah but your hair is cool.

"Ah, hey wait, don't do that!" The man shouted. Musubi, who had crawled over, looked at the screen and said, "Ah! Professor, hello!"

"Hello number 88, Musubi! How are you?" The 'Professor' asked Musubi, revealing that he knew of Sekirei at least. The guy seemed familiar, but the way he was acting really pissed me off, so I punched the nearest wall.

"Wh-What was that about?"

"Oh, sorry, just looking at your face made me want to hit something." I smiled, my right eye twitching at how much this guy reminded me of Ikutsuki.

"My god, you two are similar…"

"Hmm? Did you say something?"

"Ah, no, nothing! Anyhow, welcome to the Sekirei Plan! The rules are simple! There are one hundred and eight Sekirei freed into the city and when they find their Ashikabi, they must fight, fight, and fight for the sake of reaching Ascension!" The man declared with gusto. Now I remembered him.

"Minaka Hiroto. I see that you're going to be using Shin Tokyo for something ridiculous. That doesn't matter right now, what matters is what you mean when you say 'Ascension', what do you mean by 'Ascend'?" I asked the CEO of MBI.

"They will hold the fate of the world in their hands! Plus it sounds cool! Anyways, this is meant to be a secret so I'll ask you to keep it one. Meaning that if you tell anyone, MBI will seek revenge. Toodaloo!" The clearly insane man told me before he hung up.

"_**Indeed, the man is insane, but thou must tread lightly Fool for he seems to have a clear goal. There is nothing more dangerous than a madman with a goal, and the resources to pursue it."**_ Yep, you're right Orpheus. Just look at Takaya.

"Minato-san!" Musubi called, snapping me out of my reverie. "Let's fight together and reach Ascension! With the two of us, there's no way we can lose! Me with my fists and you with your monsters!"

SMASH

**Thou hast increased the power of the Chariot Social Link.**

**May it guide thy destiny.**

Twice in one night, sweet!

"Those aren't monsters Musubi, they are called Personae and I would ask that you keep them a secret for now."

"Ah! Okay! Musubi will do her best!" The excitable girl in front of me declared.

"We should probably turn in for the night." I told her with a pat on the head.

"Okay!"

~}{~

"My, my, this is a surprise indeed! I had never once thought that we would encounter one another again, young man." The long nosed man in front of me remarked from where he sat.

"This is as much a surprise to you as it was to me Igor. How are you nowadays?" I inquired as I looked about the current layout of the Velvet Room. Rather than being an old-fashioned elevator as I remembered it, the Velvet room had become an aviary that housed only one bird at the moment, a brown and pink tinged wagtail. Wait a minute, Sekirei means Wagtail, meaning that the wagtail represents Musubi. I chuckled about how clever it was.

"_**Clever indeed! I approve of the pun!"**_ Why? _**"Because it is a linguistic pun." **_I see.

"I see you noticed the wildlife. I hope that you appreciate the pun. As for what I have been doing, in the three years since you died there has been another Wild Card who gathered a group of Persona users and kept the world from meeting its end. They killed the one attempting to end it rather then seal her, but I believe that it was for the best due to her state of mind." Igor explained as a door towards the back of the room opened, allowing Margaret to enter with… **THE REAPER**!

"Um, Igor, I don't mean to be rude about your clientele, but what is **The Reaper** doing here?" I asked the proprietor of the Velvet Room. Igor chuckled and said, "Due to the events that passed last year, a shadow gained an ego and a Persona and joined that Wild Card in his journey. **The Reaper** is curious about doing the same, and as such will be taking the form of one of the Sekirei, and will join you on your current journey as the one hundred and ninth Sekirei and will attempt to gain an ego. I hope that it won't be too much trouble."

"Nah, it's cool, but you guys are going to be doing quite a bit of memory and data tinkering if you want that to work." I chuckled.

"We have already taken care that. All that is left is for **The Reaper** to chose their form." Margaret informed me from where she stood with the shadow. I nodded to **The Reaper**, "I'm looking forward to working with you."

"**Indeed, little Fool. It will be amusing to watch your journey again."** **The Reaper** told me, which was indeed a surprise. "Any specific name I should call you?"

"**Shinisasayaku is the name that I have chosen." The Reaper** informed me.

"Alright. See you soon." I told the shadow as I turned back to Igor, "Anything else that I need to know?"

"Only that your original contract still applies and that you will have to find to find the entrances to the Velvet Room on your own. Here is the Velvet Key, and best of luck during the coming days."

Oh, that sounds ominous. And I'm fading out. "Later Igor, Margaret, Shinisasayaku."

~}{~

_While Minato dreamt of the Velvet Room, Musubi and a number of figures that she couldn't identify were watching a nightmare unfold on an unfamiliar bridge._

_They watched as a car was driving late at night, heading home from a party of sorts, filled with a family of four with the parents in the front and two children, a boy and his younger sister, trying to stay awake in the back seats of the car. None of the car's occupants were prepared for a strange wraithlike being to collide with the car and smash it against the bridge._

_One of the figures said in a voice that couldn't be identified as male or female, **"Death, The Arcana That Shouldn't Have Been. The Arcana Born Of The Sins Of An Idiotic Man Who Chased Immortality**. It seems that we are watching the day that the Fool stepped onto his Path."_

_As the figure had been speaking, its voice had gained the identifiers of being female._

_Musubi and the figures gasped in shock at the carnage that the wraith had caused, while the wraith shook itself off as it peeled away from the wreckage. There was the clanking of a chain gun being fired as bullets peppered the wraith. A gynoid, a robot with a female shape, was charging toward the wraith and firing the bullets from what Musubi and the other dreamers believed to be her fingers._

_When the gynoid entered within fifteen meters of the wraith the first half of a bell toll marking midnight was heard, and then the world took on a green hue. The full moon hung low in the sky, revealing that the river that had once been filled with water was now brimming with blood. From the island behind the dreamers, combatants, and bystanders, the sound of metal being torn apart and reformed could be heard, as the dreamers turned around they saw an amalgamation of buildings towering into the now silent heavens. One of the dreamers murmured in a male but distorted voice, **"Tartarus."**_

_None of the other dreamers knew what the word meant, but they knew that the tower before them was called by that name. The dreamers whipped around when they heard the sounds of someone stirring in the car. The dreamers watched with morbid fascination as the boy navigated the car and discovered that both of his parents appeared to be unconscious in the front seat, blood flowing from their ears. Only four of the dreamers understood what that meant and the implications. Where the boy's sister had been sitting there was now a child-sized coffin. Only the figure that had spoken first knew what that meant._

_During all of this, the robot and the wraith had continued their duel, not caring about their surroundings, only that the other be defeated._

_"HEY!" The cry came from the boy who was now standing by the car's rear door. The wraith and the robot turned towards the boy, who charged at the wraith and started batting it with his fists, tears streaming from his eyes as he pleaded, "GIVE THEM BACK! GIVE BACK MUM, DAD, AND NATSUMI! GIVE THEM BACK! GIVE THEM BACK! Give them back…"_

_Most of the dreamers tried to run to the boy and comfort him but when they tried to touch him, they just passed through the boy's body. The dreamers standing near the boy were nearly blinded by a flash of light from the ground and backed of to get a better look, and witnessed a glowing set of concentric circles and runes beneath the wraith and the boy. A single, female, monotone voice rang out, "I apologize. This is the only way that I can finish my mission, the neutralization of the Arcana Shadow, Death. Even in its incomplete form Death is too powerful for me to defeat, so I must seal it within a living vessel. I am… Sorry…"_

_The scene faded to black as the people who had been dreaming bolted upright from where they lay, scattered about Shin Tokyo. Musubi looked at Minato, tears streaming from her eyes, she knew that the boy had been her Ashikabi, but something seemed off. The Sekirei hugged her Ashikabi tightly as she tried to fall asleep again._

~}{~

"Um, Minato-san there's an angry person at the door here to see you." Musubi informed me as I woke up. This definitely can't be good. _**"Thou art correct, Fool."**_

Thanks for the confidence Orpheus. I got up and went to the door where I discovered a very angry landlord. "Ah, Landlord-san is there something I can do for you?"

"You can start by packing your things Sahashi-san. I do believe that you were informed that this is a singles room and as such I can kick you out for bringing your girlfriend to live with you." The Landlord told me, damned old man that he is.

"Now, now, Landlord-san be a bit more reasonable…"

"No. You have until you find a new apartment. Don't take more than a week." The landlord informed me before he left.

"Well this sucks." I said as I slammed the door.

"Yes!" Musubi chirped.

"**_Indeed." _**Orpheus stated.

~}{~

After feeding Musubi, a task _**FAR**_ easier said than done…

"_**Quite so. Where do you think she puts it all?"**_ Somewhere beyond the ken of man, Orpheus, somewhere beyond the ken of man.

As I was saying, after appeasing The Musubi's hunger, we decided to head out and search for apartments. Which reminds me, I should phone Mum and explain what happened… Wait a minute, Mum works for MBI, therefore it's possible that she could be involved with the Sekirei plan, and she was really pushing me to become bio-engineer. This calls for some shenanigans.

"_**Fool, this could get very risky very fast."**_ I know, but I just can't resist. So, I phoned Mum. She picked upon on the first ring.

"Hello Minato, is something the matter?" Mum asked me.

"All I wanted to do was tell you, was that I'm being thrown out of my apartment because I got a girlfriend. Aaaaand, wagtail." I spoke quickly, trying to throw her off her game.

"Wai-What? You were kicked out of your apartment?" Yes! She's taking the bait…

"Yes."

"And you joined the Sekirei Plan?" She took the bait hook, line, and sinker!

"I never said anything about that, but you just proved that you have foreknowledge of the Sekirei Plan and that you are most likely involved with its inner workings."

"When did you decide to be so clever?"

"Recently. Anyway, is there anywhere you would recommend to get an apartment?"

"If you value your sanity, avoid Izumo House like the plague." She advised me.

"Right. Izumo House it is!"

"Didn't I just warn you against doing that?"

"Yeah, and therefore it is quite logically the best choice."

"*Sigh* and why would that be?"

"Because the best place is usually either not recommended or the place that one would check last. Can you text me the directions?"

"Yeah, sure." My mother grunted.

"Also, can you front me my allowance for about a month while I search for a job so I can pay rent? If you don't then I might tell Yukari about who our father is, well either that or I tell her about the Sekirei Plan."

"You don't even know who your father is!" Mum exclaimed over the phone, causing me to hold the device away from my ear. I just chuckled and said, "Minaka Hiroto and I had a rather… enlightening conversation yesterday."

"Fine, but only for a month. Damned, lousy, stupid, boss saying things he shouldn't…"  Mum swore before hanging up.

"**_Do thou believe that madman to be thy father?"_** It's possible, especially when you consider Mum's reaction to my bluff. If he is my father, I'm going to beat him half to death for doing this to the Sekirei.


	2. Chapter 2 Dropped A Bash

Chapter 2: Dropped a **Bash** on them.

By: Alex T. Wallman

Disclaimer: Owning nothing, Doods.

Author's note: GOT SOME REVIEWS TO ANSWER!

chad001: So far as the SEES goes they and other Social Links will be mentioned in the flashbacks and conversation. As for Aigis… Well let's just say that I have a plan for her. I don't know if I will have Akitsu join up with Minato in this because, let's face it, between Minato's Personae and all of his other Sekireis' powers they will be pretty damn broken.

The DragonBard: The reason that Minato knows that Takami works for MBI is because he has been having dreams about the Dark Hour since he was born; imagine that you were a mother and that your son came up to you one day and started telling you tales of an hour hidden between the end of one day and the beginning of the next, imagine if he told you about the water turning to blood and instead of water falling when it rained that it rained blood instead, imagine if he told you that there is a tower that is so high that it scratches the heavens, imagine if he told you of the monsters that hid behind masks of denial and feasted upon any human to enter their time. You'd get that kid checked with all the best equipment, now who has the best equipment? That's right! MBI does! Minato clued in when everyone at MBI was calling Takami Assistant Director.

About Minato copying the Hannya, he actually isn't. Minato is doing something that Mitsuru has been known to do in the manga of Persona 3, which is summoning their Persona without using any form of foci, and usually strong emotions can be used to trigger it and a keyword may be necessary. In Mitsuru's case, she uses it when she's angry with the guys for being in the baths when they shouldn't have been and was going to **Execute** them. Each Persona needs a different keyword or phrase to be activated, Orpheus' is **Strum**, and Azathoth's is **I Hunger**.

A note about Azathoth for you who are unfamiliar with it. Azathoth is the most powerful of the Outer Gods from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and is known by the title's the Daemon Sultan and the Blind Idiot God. Azathoth is only known for consuming anything that touches it and the mad melody that is played by an infinite number of lesser Outer Gods in order to keep Azathoth from awakening and devouring everything, including reality. Azathoth's physical shape has never been described and due to the fact that it would normally be a mass of tentacles, mouths, arms, tongues, and other orifices I took the liberty to make it something less likely to break peoples' minds and insight gibbering.

New social links:

Tsukiumi – Empress: Tiamat [III]

Kusano – Justice: King Arthur (yeah I'm going there. Did I mention that it's F/sn Arthur?) [VIII]

Uzume – Hanged Man: Leviathan [XII]

The Reaper – Star: Gilgamesh (Another F/sn shout out) [XVII]

Yukari – Fortune: Nyarlathotep [X]

About the group that will Minato will lead in the Dark Hour, I currently have Shinisasayaku with him and Miya tagging along out of curiosity although she won't be very serious for a while.

As for Miya's base Persona, guess.

As always, Reviews, Questions, and suggestions are welcome.

Also, there's an obvious shout out in this chapter. Cookies to you if you find it.

~}{~

I had initially planned to head straight over to Izumo House with Musubi and speak to the landlord but Yukari, my sister, had dropped a bridge on that plan by showing up at my apartment, seeing Musubi, and declaring that 'the women need to shop', and then kidnapping her.

Stupid younger sister kidnapping MY alien. _**"Art thou lonely without the maiden, Fool?"**_ No. Now shut up, we're going to look for the Velvet room.

~}{~

Instead of finding the entrance to the Velvet Room, I ended up hanging out with Yasaka, a friend from prep school. He supposedly has some huge secret to tell me, I just think he's in the closet. _** "What closet?"**_

Don't worry about it Orpheus, the revelation may shatter your mind. Wait, the Greeks didn't care about sexuality so I guess you'd be fine with it. Wait, no, that's just the relationship between student and teacher. Whatever, I'll tell you anyways. The closet refers to a state of sexuality where a person refuses to accept that their sexuality is homosexual rather then heterosexual. _**"I see… Yes, this young man does present such an attitude." **_Even you can see it and yet he denies it, he's only hurting himself.

"Oi, Sahashi you paying attention?" Yasaka asked me as he tugged on the sleeves of his, most likely new, jacket that looked pretty fancy I might add or rather make that all his clothes. He's really going hard into trying to make himself look good. I nodded and said, "Yup, Kagari-san this blah blah blah, Kagari-san that blah blah blah. Really, It's a conversation that I could have tuned out of fifteen minutes ago and just extrapolated from there." _**"Which thou did."**_ A-yup. I mean really he just started looping.

"No you idiot! I was telling you about my new job!" Yasaka said as he tried to pull me into a noogie, the idiot. I lived with Junpei for a year, Yasaka has no way to catch me in a noogie with all the practice I've had dodging pretty much anything Junpei tried to do to me from flying kicks to noogies. I just shrugged and said, "It must have been drowned out by the praise you're singing about your senpai."

"Very funny Sahashi. I'm a host, you idiot. Pay attention next time." Yasaka sighed, I chuckled and patted him on the back, "Don't worry, your senpai will understand your feelings if you keep trying your best."

"SAHASHI!" Yasaka cried as he began chasing me while trying to hit me, I just ran and kept laughing. Yasaka froze when a voice called out, "Yasaka-kun, is that you?"

"Kagari-san!" Yasaka exclaimed as he straightened up and fixed his clothes, I looked at the source of the voice and sighed. Damn, that guy was pretty much built to attract women, he was thin, he had grayish hair, and his face was the kind that woman would fight each other to have. To be prompt about it, the guy was a bishonen and I swear that with every movement he made he let loose the bishie sparkles. _**"Bishie sparkles?"**_ Bishie sparkles are a hallucinatory effect that happens around men who are considered bishonen and well, they appear to sparkle. These sparkles are most effective on women and have a tendency to aggravate men. _**"Fascinating, I am impressed at the way humanity has evolved over the millennia."**_ Humans are fascinating things all right.

"Hmm, a friend of yours Yasaka-kun?" Kagari asked as he looked at me, I met his eyes and he narrowed his as he studied me. I straightened up and extended my hand, "I'm Sahashi Minato, and it's a pleasure to meet you if all the praise that Yasaka has been singing is true."

"Heh, I'm not that great. In fact I've been off work with a cold up till now." He chuckled as he shook my hand but then winced slightly and continued, "Looks like I'm still not quite up to snuff. Let's meet up over some drinks some time."

"Sounds good." I called to him as he headed away.

SMASH

**Thou hast forged the Tower Social Link.**

**It will guide Thy Destiny.**

Hmm, seems like I'll be seeing him soon. Oh, now lightning shouldn't be falling on a clear day. Hey Orpheus, normally I'd ask if you're thinking what I'm thinking but I feel the need to ask if you want to do something bang out of order? _**"It's thy body Fool, I am but a passenger in this body and a tool for thy cause. I will do as thou will."**_ Seems like you're up for this.

~}{~

A few minutes later and I was behind the building where the mysterious lightning was falling and I had Orpheus' card in my hand. I crushed the card, felt Orpheus grab my shoulders and then the lurching feeling of Orpheus pulling me into the air. After about twenty seconds, I found myself on top of the building and beheld the sight before me. The lightning twins from yesterday were in some sort of three-way fight with a water using Sekirei, and a one with a whip. The water user appeared to be fighting off both the twins and the twin tail, the twins were probably trying to knockout one or both of the other Sekirei, and I had no idea as to what the twin tail's motive was. I chuckled and moved forward into better view of the combatants, Orpheus' card hovering slightly over my hand and said, "Well, well, if it ain't the lightning twins from yesterday. Out bullying other Sekirei again, and here I thought that yesterday was a good demonstration of what I think about bullies."

"Geh! The monster guy from yesterday!" The bustier twin, Hikari, growled as she paused in her assault on the others who had also turned to look at me. The water user, a blonde in some sort of white tunic and a black overcoat was looking at me with disgust, while the whip wielder, a twin tailed blonde in a yellow and black dress, was looking puzzled by my appearance. The water user snorted, "Another monkey who's testing how arrogant he can be."

"I know that the twins are trying to knock you out based on what Musubi told me but what about the twin tail over there? What's she up to?" I mused aloud as the twins began to back off. The bustier twin was glaring at me as she spat, "Hibiki, we're out of here. It isn't worth it if the odds are like this. And you, monster guy, don't think that we've forgotten yesterday!"

I waved at them as they jumped away, leaving me with the twin tail and the water user who were both looking at me funny. I smiled at the two of them and asked, "So, why are you two fighting?"

The twin tail gave me a smug look and said, "Hmph, I'm just trying to do as my Ashikabi ordered and deliver more Sekirei to him but this one just isn't listening."

"So, you're trying to drag a Sekirei off to a person who she hasn't reacted to? That's bad juju, that is so I think that I'll be helping her then." I said as I jerked my head towards the water Sekirei and crushed Orpheus' card. I heard the familiar shattering of glass as Orpheus rose up behind me and I chuckled, "Just like old times, eh Orpheus?"

For the first time that I had called him forth, Orpheus spoke other then his chant or just shouting, he said, _**"Indeed Fool, It has been too long since we've fought a real battle."**_

The water Sekirei and the whip wielding Sekirei gawked at me and Orpheus and I let my smile grow until it felt like it was touching my ears and I said, "Yeah, but that's if the jou-chan there can keep up. Drop a **Bash** her, would ya?"

Orpheus surged forward, lyre raised above his head as he went to attack the whip wielding Sekirei. The girl jumped back just as the lyre went crashing down, creating a crater in the roof. Both of the Sekirei looked at Orpheus and boggled at the fact that something like him could exist while I summoned Azathoth's card into my hand and chuckled, "Do you want to face another?"

"Wha-What? You have more?" The twin tail cried as I cupped my hand around Azathoth's card, slowly brining my fingers toward it as a threat. The twin tail broke first, "Tch, I'll be back for you Number 09!"

The whip wielding Sekirei jumped away across the rooftops until she was out of sight, I turned to the blonde Sekirei and said, "Nice to meet you, I'm Sahashi Minato. Yourself?"

"Hmph, that a monkey such as yourself would try to help me is just idiocy seeing as I, Number 09 Tsukiumi, am the strongest Sekirei!" Tsukiumi declared as she turned away from me, I chuckled and turned back towards the stairwell of the building when I heard a familiar sound.

SMASH

**Thou hast forged the Empress Social Link.**

**It will guide Thy Destiny.**

Ooh, two new Social Links in less then twenty minutes I am good. Then I noticed someone on top of the stairwell. He looked down at me, and no matter how hard he tried, I knew that it was Kagari because that mask was not fooling anyone. Who does he think he is? Clark Kent? I was about to ask him what he was doing when Tsukiumi asked, "Homura! Playing guardian again are you?"

"I was about to come and help but it seems that everything is under control. Thanks for helping out." He said to me just before he jumped away. I could hear Tsukiumi shouting after him about him running away before they could settle the score but I wasn't paying attention because I heard that familiar, satisfying sound.

SMASH

**Thou hast improved the Tower Social Link.**

**It will guide Thy Destiny.**

Proof that Homura is Kagari and wearing a paper-thin disguise at that. I'll talk to him about that the next time we meet. Does he seriously think that his mask is fooling anyone?

"_**Fool, who is 'Clark Kent'?"**_ Don't worry about it Orpheus

~}{~

I awoke later that night after day of much nothing, and looked out the window to see that the rain was still falling but it wasn't rain. It was raining blood, the Moon hung low in the sky, and the world was bathed in a green glow. The Dark Hour was here, somehow.

Well, no time like the present to investigate. I grabbed my umbrella and headed out because this Dark Hour just doesn't add up. Nyx was sealed, sleeping but not dead.

~}{~

The dreamers dreamed of a world that wasn't theirs once more.

_This time they saw not a hopeless battle but a one sided slaughter. The Fool, older now, stood atop the roof of an apartment in a puddle of blood facing down a strange monster that was composed entirely of an infinite number of hands, a blue mask, and a number of blades grasped in its many hands. Near the Fool, a girl lay on her side watching the scene as it played out before her, the gun she had dropped earlier now lying in the puddle before the Fool. The abomination shuffled ever towards the pair as the Fool knelt and picked up the gun, cradling it in his hands. Slowly, the Fool put the gun to his head and whispered, "Per…So…Na!"_

_A grin broke across the Fool's face as he pulled the trigger, an unearthly glow alighting his eyes as what looked like glass flew from the side of his head parallel the gun and formed a robotic figure that floated behind him. A cry rang out from the dreamers who recognized the figure._

_One called, "Orpheus!"_

_Another shouted, "The thing that was with that monkey!"_

_The final one whispered under their breath, "The thing that was with Yasaka's friend."_

_The Fool gripped his head in pain as Orpheus began to spasm, its limps jerking to and fro as a pair of arms ripped out from under its head and pulled it apart. The beast that emerged wore a helmet that resembled a tyrannosaurus rex's skull, had a cape of coffins adorning its back, and in its right hand it clenched a sword. The beast roared as it pounced on the Inverted Magician, hacking and ripping it to pieces as the Fool sank to his knees in pain. Ichor flew wildly from the Inverted Magician's wounds as it was unable to fend off the beast on top of it. Severed hands leaking ichor were strewn across the roof by the beast's rampage, all the while the Inverted Magician screeched in pain which ended only when the beast had cut the Inverted Magician's mask._

_The dreamers watched in abject silence and horror, the smallest of them crying at the sight, until one spoke, "And thus, the false Magician falls at the hands of neither the Fool nor those his fellows. Not the Magician's, or the High Priestess', nor the Empress', or the Emperor's, nor the Hierophant's, or the Lovers', nor the Justice's, or the Chariot's."_

_The beast stood, a severed arm still writhing against its viselike grip, and roared as it crushed the arm causing ichor to spew onto the roof. As the beast finished its roar, it faded briefly to Orpheus and then disappeared as the Fool collapsed._

_The scene faded to black as the dreamers heard the girl call out to the Fool, "*i*a*o-kun? M*N*T*-KUN!"_

_Two of the dreamers bolted awake and glimpsed the green skied, and bloody rained world of the Dark Hour, four remained as the coffins the Dark hour rendered them, and the last stirred slowly and gazed at the swollen moon that was jutting through the clouds and said, "Three are awake and four are asleep. Only a matter of time now, Fool. Both Time and Fate are cruel mistresses and no one, not even I, can escape their grasp…"_

~}{~

I kept my head on a swivel as I walked through the streets of Shin Tokyo, keeping a wary eye for any Shadows that may be lurking just out of sight. I had yet to encounter any but the familiar coffins that were standing, blissfully unaware of the blood raining down on them, in the streets were proof that it had the same effect on people as the Dark Hour does.

I ended up in a residential area of northern Shin Tokyo when I noticed that there were lights, candles I presume, in an old Japanese style home. I walked towards the entrance in the fence and chuckled when I saw the sign that said 'Open house at Izumo house' and gave a variety of details. I walked to the front door and knocked, I didn't notice a doorbell but I doubt it'd have worked, I heard footsteps and someone call, "Coming…"

The door opened and I found myself at sword point, which was something that didn't normally happen when someone opens a door. Then again, this is the Dark Hour and since this person seems to know that no electronics work and that candles are the best light source other then the Moon. This person has probably had to deal with a Shadow or two so I probably should have expected it. The person pointing the sword at me had lavender hair and was wearing a hakama with a lavender bottom, she had a smile on her face and her eyes were mere slits but I can't help but wonder…What sort of person smiles while threatening to kill, but a one used to killing? I raised my free hand and said, "Hi, not a Shadow nor am I here to kill you. Saw the lights, thought I'd say hello to another person who experiencing the Dark Hour."

The woman raised an eyebrow at my explanation and then asked, "Ara ara, that someone else is out and about at this time is strange, but I wonder, what is the Dark Hour?"

I winced at my slip up then gestured at the sky with my free hand and said, "This is the Dark Hour, a time that should not exist, an hour hidden between one day and the next, a time where most turn to coffins, a time when water turns to blood, and a time where no electrical device works. Such is one half of the Dark Hour, a time when Shadows stalk the world and, based on the fact that you assumed that I was dangerous, I assume that you have some experiences with them."

I noticed that my hand was getting wet so I pulled it back under my umbrella and looked at the blood running down it, a familiar sensation. The woman had her eyes open and was giving me an appraising look although the smile never left her face and the sword never left my throat. I looked the woman in the eyes and smiled, "Hello I'm Sahashi Minato, originally I was going to come and visit tomorrow about the open house, but when I went for a wander my feet led me here and I noticed the light so I decided to knock."

"Ara, so that's why you are here? Normally I'd turn you away for being here at such a time but given the circumstances I suppose that you may know more about this time then most. I think I'll have you explain that to me. Oh my, where are my manners? I am Asama Miya, the landlady of this Izumo House." Miya said as she moved back into the entrance hall, sheathing her sword and allowing me in. I slipped off my coat and shoes and leaned my umbrella against the wall near them and followed Miya who had begun to move further into the building. I found myself in what probably served as the dining room and living room and sat down opposite Miya. She smiled at me and said, "I'd offer you something to drink, but there's not really much that can be done at this time. I must ask how do you know so much about this time, this…Dark Hour, as you put it?"

"The Dark Hour is…well, it's an hour that shouldn't exist. You all ready know the basics, water turns to blood if it isn't in a sealed container, most people turn into coffins, there is no electricity, Shadows roam the streets, and those that turn into coffins do not remember or experience the Dark Hour. That's about it other then one thing, those that experience the Dark Hour generally have the aptitude to summon a manifestation of the mask they wear to face the hardships of daily life known as a Persona. Personae generally take the forms of beings from mythology such as Greek or Japanese and for the most part each person has two Personae, an initial Persona and a 'perfect' Persona. Initial Personae are, of course, nowhere near as powerful as a 'perfect' one and they also have a tendency to have no immunities to any attacks, whereas 'perfect' Personae are extremely powerful and have the ability to negate certain attacks and are also 'strong' against another. To cause a Persona to go from initial to perfect the wielder generally has to have some form of great personal growth." I paused and the continued, "There is another form of Persona user known as a Wild Card. Wild Card's have the ability to change between Personae and they can have over one hundred possible Personae. That's about all I can tell you other then the fact that both Shadows and Personae fall into groups that are given the titles of the twenty one major arcana in tarot."

"I have seen proof of everything that you mentioned except these Personae that you were talking about, I assume that you have some experience with them Sahashi-san?" Miya asked as she gauged my reaction, I smiled and said, "There…there was someone who taught me all this as well. But, yes, I am a Persona user, in fact, I am a Wild Card but right now I only have two Personae, Orpheus and Azathoth. I can summon them if you like."

Miya shook her and said, "it's would be best not to do so inside and I believe that this hour is almost up."

"Then I best be off, wouldn't want any of your tenants coming down and seeing me here at this hour. I'll be back tomorrow to discuss moving in here with Musubi." I walked out to the front hall slipped on my shoes and coat and grabbed my umbrella, turned to Miya who had followed me into the hall and said, "See you tomorrow."

"Indeed." She said as I bowed and walked out the door. I popped open my umbrella only to hear that old nostalgic sound.

SMASH

**Thou hast forged the Hierophant Social Link.**

**It will guide Thy Destiny.**

You were unusually quite Orpheus, what's up? _**"Nothing, it's just…she reminded me of something…"**_ Crushing on the landlady Orpheus? That's bad juju, that is. _**"Fool! Why I never…!"**_ Relax Orpheus, it was a joke.

~}{~

"Fool, we must speak." A female voice called from behind me as I walked back towards my apartment, my curiosity piqued I turned and faced the one who had called out to me. I was surprised to see a girl of about junior high age wearing a large trench coat, a cravat, and carrying two… overly long barreled pistols. I sighed and said, "Sup **Reaper**? Or is it Shinisasayaku now?"

"That matter is of no importance at this point in time, now we must speak." Shinisasayaku answered, her yellow eyes betraying nothing but apathy towards, well, just about everything. I couldn't make out any of her distinguishing characteristics other then her yellow eyes and a roughly cut cascade of pale grey hair. I shrugged and asked, "All right, what's the problem?"

"I am currently protecting another Sekirei from unscrupulous ashikabi within a forest nearby, as it stands I may soon be outnumbered and I desire for help. I would request your help at this moment, but I am able to understand any hesitancy that you feel." Shinisasayaku said with a nod, as if coming there was some form of unspoken agreement between the two of us. I quirked my eyebrow and answered, "I'll help but I do have some business to attend to tomorrow."

"That is of no matter, all that you need to know is that Sekirei number 109, Shinisasayaku is now yours." With that she reached up and pulled my head down into hers, I winced at the impact of our skulls and she got a look on her face as if remembering something. Shinisasayaku tilted her head back and kissed me clumsily, wings of grey light illuminating the dark green atmosphere of the Dark Hour. When Shinisasayaku released the kiss, she furrowed her brow, shrugged, released her clutch on my head and murmured, "Forever and ever it seems."

"So do you want me to go and grab Musubi, and meet you there or what?" I asked as righted my umbrella, gears whirring inside my head as I tried to formulate a plan, which isn't my area of expertise seeing as Mitsuru usually did the planning. Shinisasayaku shook her head, "No, let the wheel of Fate turn and watch the result. There is no need for any other action at this moment."

I nodded and as I turned away called, "See you soon!"

"Indeed…" Her sentence trailed off as I walked away and the patter of rain was overshadowed by that same old sound.

SMASH

**Thou hast forged the Star Social Link.**

**It will guide Thy Destiny.**

That was strange. _**"A queer encounter, indeed…"**_

~}{~

The rain had let up as I was nearing my apartment and when I neared my street, I felt a chill run down my spine as I heard a scratching sound. Out of the gloom, a ripping sound accompanied the scratching as a Shadow seemed to glide into sight. The Shadow dragged it gnarled fingers across every coffin as it passed, octopus tentacles writhing as it moved towards me. I can almost see its face as it got closer and closer, its head tilted at an angle. My heart was pounding in my chest, I'm not strong enough to face this Shadow, and right now it's beyond my reach.

I almost summoned Orpheus' card into my hand and when the Dark Hour ended, I let out a relieved sigh as the transmogrified people around me began moving again and closing their umbrellas. I forced myself to keep from running back to my apartment as I moved down the street and rounded the corner. I jogged back to my apartment and unlocked the door. As I entered, I pushed the door shut and locked it with one hand while I shrugged my coat of my shoulders. I chucked my pants against the wall and crawled into the futon, Musubi latching onto me as soon as I lay down.

~}{~

I was sitting across the table from Miya again, this time I had my hands steepled in front of my face and had locked eyes with her. Musubi sat to my left and kept looking back and forth between us as we continued our staring match, which was interrupted when someone opened the door and said, "Miya, I- Yasaka's friend?"

I didn't break eye contact with Miya as I answered the familiar voice with a grin, "Yo Kagari-san! I'm guessing that you live here and, well, Musubi and I are discussing moving in here with Asama-san. If all goes well then we can have those drinks you promised here."

"Ara, that Kagari-san knows a delinquent who calls on people at absurd hours of the night, such a shame." Miya said with a beatific smile slapped across her face, her eyes almost closing because of the smile's width. I chuckled and lied through my teeth, "Lies, slander, and balderdash! You're the one who invited me in last night, I only stopped by to leave a note about my plans to visit today."

"Ara ara, that's quite the mouth you have there Sahashi-san." Miya remarked as she let loose a blast of malice that formed a Hannya mask behind her. Where did it even come? Oh dear lord, it feels like Nyx's pressure wave only more malign and horrifying while being less oppressive. Mother of God, it's terrifying! Wait…Mitsuru did something similar when she was angry so it should be possible…

I focused my energy and tried to call out Orpheus but all I did was nearly crap my self. Oh well, I'll figure it out soon…very soon…


	3. Meetings, Visions, and a Bucket

Chapter 3: Truth, Old Friends, Visions, and Bucket of Fuck No

By: Alex T. Wallman

Disclaimer: Still owning nothing, Dood

Author's Note: So, this is kind of a filler chapter but it's because I'm working on the next chapter not only for LFWW, but for Fate/HiME, Tales of Fate, and for a few plot bunnies that I have rattling around inside my head.

Another thing is that when I write I am similar to a method actor so this does conflict with the story that I already have planned out; this even when I'm writing in third person so the character's dialogue may get a bit hammy.

Also, I do know that you guys have your own opinions and suggestions and I welcome them. And I know that I sound a bit rude when I'm responding and I do try and tone it down because I know that at times I can be insufferable. If you guys have anything you want to say regarding any of my other stories please PM me with your thoughts and suggestions.

This chapter is rife with shot outs, you have been warned.

This next bit will be about some of the plot bunnies I've had and I would like to get your opinions on them.

**For The Love of God!**: This is a crossover between Fate/Stay Night and Battle Girls ~Time Paradox~, which while being incredibly lighthearted and fan service based has real capabilities for being serious and dark due to the time period and political situation. This will most likely end up as a ShirouxMulti because there are NO men in the universe in which Battle Girls ~Time Paradox~ takes place unless you count the talking dog, Shiro.

**Fate/Stay Always + Vampire**: So I know that people have attempted this before and most likely gave up when they realized how difficult reconciling the two universes would be but I think that I've found a way to do it. Shirou taking Tsukune's place of course. This will involve a lot of Character Death because, let's face it, you screw with Shirou's friends and he ends you. Pairings will be pretty open due to how Shirou acts in comparison to Tsukune, but I think that Inner Moka would actually warm up to him due to his ability to chose a path and follow it rather then Tsukune's indecision. A note for this one is that if I do it I will finish Tales of Fate first so that BARINADE can be a character.

**Viewing the Hill of Swords While In Flight**: Let's face it, a number of us loved Hill of Swords, and a number of us love In Flight. How to combine them? Noodle Incident that involves tripping. It should be noted that it will be a 'Louise summons Shirou, but everyone else somehow tags along' scenario. If this gets votes then I'll need to get in contact with Gabriel Blessing to get his approval for it.

**Dorm Life**: Fate/Stay Night AU megacrossover with a number of the main cast from a number of series living in a dorm owned and run by Kirei. Yes, _that_ Kirei. Extreme Shenanigans all up in this one

**Personae and Paeksis**: That's right. Persona and Vandread crossover. This would be out of control.

**No Need For Shirou!**: A Fate/Stay Night and _Tenchi Muyo! _crossover where certain things are revealed and painful news is delivered.

**It Got Worse**: A Drakengard and Familiar of Zero crossover where Caim and Angelus from the fifth ending of Drakengard are summoned by Louise as her familiars, or rather Caim is. Angelus claims that dragons of her breed are too smart to fall for FoZ's wizards'/magic users'/mages'/whatever's brand of bullshit magic summoning. I'm also going to use the Dark Id's character interpretations because they are so much more fun.

Wake up, Protect a Small Girl: A Familiar of Zero and NieR crossover. Brother!Nier and Weiss wake up in Halkeginia after erasing themselves from existence. They don't know how it happened, or its implications, but they don't care. They want to get back and see their friends. But their new existence isn't the only thing that has changed for Nier. Tyrann appears as a talking shadow blob that bugs Nier.

Please vote for your favorite and if I can figure out how to put a poll on my profile, I will!

Also, Higa or Minaka for the Devil Social Link?

As for previous reviews:

Realm of Emptiness: the thing that I hated about Sekirei is that Minato just came off as a real everyman with no defining features when he has such an interesting family, he probably has the capability to be a genius, and due to his genealogy, I would expect that he would be quite susceptible to becoming a sociopath. These are some of the things that I'm trying to show and when I play Persona 3, I turn Minato into a high functioning sociopath. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

jhonathon arisato: I cannot see Tsukiumi as the Justice. I just can't.

SPOILERIFIC TIME!

About Tsumi Batsu, that is the name that I gave the main character of Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey based on his role in LFWW. If any of you know what those two names mean then you've probably guessed about his mistake, if you don't then look up Persona 2.

ZELRETCH IN DA HOUSE! Although he really is just a plot device/placeholder in the story.

For those of you who don't know Labrys, she is a character in the Persona universe first mentioned in the Persona 3 Audio Drama and she appears as a playable character in Persona 4: Arena after completing story mode and defeating her Shadow.

Also, a cliffhanger because I'm going to write the battle later.

End of Spoilers!

Read, Review and Enjoy!

ED: When I first planned this chapter, I had planned on it being only a thousand or so words plus the Author's Note, somehow it became a full fledged chapter.

ED2: Damn. This is hands down my longest chapter yet, and I'm not sure as to when I'm going to have a good finishing point. Hell, thirteen pages of writing and I still haven't even gotten back to the main plot!

ED3: This chapter is going to end up being longer then all of the fic prior to it. Holy Fuck.

ED4: It should be noted that the shit cannon has been loaded and aimed at the fan. This was originally going to be called Meanwhile and would focus on the people left behind when the main character(s) of their series had gone to another universe/reality.

ED5: I don't understand why so many people whine about the friendzone, it's not that bad, I know because I was just sent there. Much Bacon, Ice Cream, and Hickory Sticks were ingested. Just Kidding, I was a man about it and decided to work on bringing this fuckload of a chapter to you. Also, happy Easter to those who celebrate it.

ED6: I had originally planned to get this chapter out so long ago… 18 pages and counting.

~}{~

A group of seven people and a dog stood in front of a grave marker, they were the first ones there, but they definitely wouldn't be the last. They all gazed at the grave forlornly; knowing that mourning now was pointless and that there were more proactive things that they could be doing to bring the one they missed back. The silence was only broken by the occasional whisper of the cool March air until the eldest female spoke, "Yamagishi and I, we… we've been looking into his family, and we believe that we have found something, but it's complicated.

"Although… this whole idea of meeting people and separation is interesting. Up until my father died, I didn't really understand how lucky I was to have met so many people and how easy it was for those connections to be severed so cleanly and then he made his sacrifice without telling us. Sometimes I wonder, just how much he planned ahead or knew when we climbed Tartarus on the thirty-first."

"There's no way to know Mitsuru." The silver haired young man next to her answered and then asked, "You mentioned his family, didn't he say that he only had distant relatives?"

"Regarding that, Akihiko-sempai, we thought that it would be best to discuss that later at the old dorm." The young woman with green tinted hair answered but didn't look away from the grave. The blonde beside her then spoke up, "I, I have been in contact with someone who believes that they may be able to help with our goal of reviving Minato-san. I will be meeting them in a few days; the information they gave me named them Mister K. Z. Schwenger but I haven't been able to uncover any data on them. I believe that his may be an existence similar to Igor-san's."

"Great another supernatural being that's all for manipulating people to increase someone's power!" The young brunette woman growled as she ground her teeth together. The blonde shook her head and said, "Yukari-san, I know that you feel that Minato-san used us and a number of other people to gain more power but I know that with all of the bonds he created between himself ad others, he came to cherish every single bond and every moment he spent with us and them."

"I know that! It's just…he was too kind and too willing to go with what others suggested, I mean he didn't even argue or even ask why when I asked him to be more intimate with me. He only asked if I was ready for it! He was too easy a target for people." The young woman shot back only to be refuted by the eldest female, "That's part of why you, Aigis, Yamagishi, a number of others, and myself came to feel for him the way we did. He cared about us in such a manner that he didn't care if he didn't feel ready or not, it was about us and what we wanted. Also, I would have you recall that he managed to outfox Tanaka so I think that you're selling him a little short."

"I wonder… was he actually that kind? I mean it could be that he was apathetic to the whole thing…" The youngest of the group remarked as he frowned slightly at the grave. The only one wearing a hat chuckled, "There's one thing I know 'bout Minato for sure and that is that he was always finding something entertaining for him to watch or do. He would do whatever it took and he didn't care how anyone felt if it got in the way of his entertainment. No way he would fake that attitude."

"You do know that you basically called Arisato a sociopath, right?" The eldest female remarked with a quirked eyebrow. The hat adorned man quickly waved his hands in front of him, "Not what I meant! Not what I meant!"

"Oh? First time that I've seen the kid's grave so crowded." A voice rasped from the groups' side, and as they turned, they saw an elderly man, his face jowly, and the hair on his head gray. Most of the group looked at the old man with questioning looks while the blonde said, "Ah, hello Mutatsu-san, it has been a while."

"It has, but it's good to see you and it's nice to see that the kid still gets visitors." The elderly man remarked as he looked at the grave of Arisato Minato. The group of young people slowly turned away and left the man, piling into and onto their respective vehicles upon reaching the parking lot, and departing towards the now shut down Iwatodai Dorm.

~}{~

An elderly man sat in the back of a limousine on its way to an address in Iwatodai where he, his granddaughter, and his granddaughter's friends, who had forced their way onto this trip, would confront those who had drudged up some memories best left buried. The man may have aged a good deal since he had left the military and started working as a consulting detective but he was still stronger then your average person and his last mission had left him with some rather… interesting gifts.

In the man's inner pocket, three things stirred.

Something vile screamed its superiority to the nothingness around it, and called for his worthy equal to call him into the world once more and rain fire and death down upon those who stood in their way.

Something zealous merely sat, patiently waiting for the time to strike down the enemies of his old friend.

Something furious stewed, his arms crossed as he waited for the time to come when more things would be destroyed and then recreated by he and his counterpart.

~}{~

Mitsuru had taken the liberty of ordering a large variety of food be delivered to the Iwatodai Dorm in preparation for their guests, of course this meant that Akihiko, Junpei, and Ken were forced to carry everything to the fourth floor lounge. The trio was rather surprised to see that the computer bank that they had used to record happenings in the dorm, as well as the nightly incursions into Tartarus and the Full Moon Shadow missions, was still present. Aigis noted their surprise and explained, "Mitsuru-san deemed it prudent that there be evidence for Minato-san's family to see, as such the computer bank was reinstalled temporarily and had all of its data uploaded onto it temporarily."

"So that's why there was no dust even though the Dorm's been closed for three years?"

"Only you would care about that Junpei-san, but yes, a cleaning crew did come through here a few days ago." Aigis answered as she turned and headed downstairs to watch for the arrival of their guests, she was surprised to see Mitsuru opening the door for the elderly man that she had seen in the file about Minato's family. She was less surprised to see that he was accompanied by a number of high school age students but then noticed something that she felt would help their case. The students remarked about how nice the Dorm looked but were quickly ushered upstairs by Mitsuru and the elderly gentleman.

In the fourth floor lounge, the students were confused by the computer bank but chose to ignore it for the spread of food on the table. Akihiko then declared, "We're all here, then? Good, wouldn't want the food to get cold."

"Yes, please everyone take a seat." Mitsuru suggested as she motioned to the couches surrounding the table and then seated herself. Once everyone had been seated, SEES taking up half the couches while the elderly man, his granddaughter and his granddaughter's friends took up the other half, Mitsuru began the introductions, "Although Akihiko, Aigis, and myself are acquainted with most of you, I believe it would be prudent that we all introduce ourselves. My name is Kirijo Mitsuru, please feel free to eat while we discuss the reason that we contacted Tsumi-san for."

"I'm Sanada Akihiko, it's a pleasure to meet you all."

"Iori Junpei's my name, don't wear it out."

"I'm Takeba Yukari, it's nice to meet you."

"Hello, My name is Yamagishi Fuuka and the furry one here is Koromaru."

"Amada Ken, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"My name is Aigis."

With SEES all introduced, the others began their introductions, starting with the elderly gentleman, "Tsumi Batsu."

"Shirogane Naoto, pleased to meet you."

"Seta Souji, nice to meet you all."

"Hanamura Yosuke, nice to meet ya!"

"Satonaka Chie, nice to meet you."

"I'm Amagi Yukiko, It's wonderful to meet you all."

"Tatsumi Kanji, s'nice ta meet you."

"I'm Kujikawa Rise! Nice to meet you all!"

"I'm Teddie! It's beary nice to meet you all!"

"I am Labrys."

"Thank you. Now then, Tsumi-san we would like to know why you abandoned your grandson while taking in your granddaughter thirteen years ago." Mitsuru said abruptly, shocking most everyone there with the exceptions of Batsu, Aigis, and Koromaru. Naoto immediately shot back, "Onii-chan died on the way to the hospital! There's no way that you can blame Ojii-sama for not taking him in!"

Her friends rallied with her but they were shot down by one statement from Batsu, "Natsumi, your brother didn't die thirteen years ago, he died three years ago."

"B-but Ojii-sama you told me that he had died thirteen years ago. What do you mean he died three years ago?" Naoto, now revealed to be called Natsumi, stuttered. Tsumi lowered his head and sighed, "Back when your mother was a teenager there was an incredible storm down in Antarctica and there were four research teams sent in while only one was retrieved after the storm abated. That was the cover story at least.

~}{~

In truth, the storm was in fact some form of space-time anomaly, previously theorized by some German scientist whose name I can never remember, called the Schwarzwelt. Anyway, what we found in there was far from a good situation. As it turned out, the Schwarzwelt was created by demons who wished to return the world to a primal state of dog eat dog, while a group of beings that revealed themselves to be angels stood against them, attempting to usher in a world singing the Lord's praise. Upon entering the Schwarzwelt, the four research vessels were separated by the intense amount of energies being released. The Red Sprite, the vessel that I was placed on, and the Blue Jet, a military support vessel, both crashed down in what would later become known as Sector Antlia, a snow and ice laden cavern above and a war torn countryside below. As soon as we touched down and had secured the ship, Commander Gore had us out and searching for the Blue Jet. We discovered the Blue Jet and a demon attempting to kill its last surviving member, a man named Jimenez, and after a lengthy battle, Commander Gore was killed by the demon that I subsequently ended. The demon's inhabiting Antlia could have been considered adapters, because they and their leader Morax sought to destroy humanity with war tactics like our own.

"After destroying Morax and finding a way to a new area of the Schwarzwelt that would be labeled Sector Bootes, we discovered that a number of the crew of the mainly scientific vessel, the Elve, had been captured by the demon in control of Bootes, Mitra. If Morax had been a general then Mitra was a scientist, I say that because of the various experiments that I saw records of when I scaled Mitra's palace. I was eventually captured by one of Mitra's minions but this led to my recovering the team's head scientist, Zelenin, and finding a way to speak with Mitra. Mitra offered us a choice, we could side with him and live in the paradise that he envisioned or die, we took the third option, scaled his palace, and offed the wanker. This led us to Sector Carina, a land based off modern shopping malls and meat processing plants, inhabited by demons that acted as factory workers, and ruled by the eternally ravenous Horkos. We found Horkos attempting to assimilate the Elve but we managed to fend him off with a gun we created with the help of the angel Mastema. We eventually tracked Horkos down and in the ensuing battle killed him as well, leading us to the fourth sector, Sector Delphinus.

"Delphinus was a massive garbage dump that held a form of psychic virus that induced madness in its victims. After a lot of scouring and the discovery of a foreboding statue, it was revealed that our current foe was the demon Asura, who sought to turn all humans into violence-starved savages and in his definition, perfect. I tracked Asura down, with the demons that I had rallied to my cause, defeated Asura, and found our ticket to the fifth sector. Sector Eridanus was unlike any of the previous sectors in that it was beautiful, a beautiful hedge maze filled to the brim with powerful demons, debilitating traps, and annoying warp traps hidden in random places. After finding our way into the towering white pillar that dominated Eridanus' center, we found ourselves stymied by a doorway that we couldn't unlock. We ended up getting help from a group of mercenaries called Jack's Squad, who had been hired to infiltrated the Schwarzwelt and make off with a boatload of Forma, the Schwarzwelt equivalent to resources, and demons for combat drones. At the time we were unaware of their plans but I'll get to that later, with the help of Jack's Squad we were able to plunge further into the pillar and squared off with a being called 'Mother' Ouroboros. This battle ended with Ouroboros' death but it decided to show us that not all things die when they're killed but luckily, we found a way to get past the Mother's circumstantial immortality and kill her. We believed that by exiting through a singularity present in Eridanus that we could bust out of the Schwarzwelt and return home, this turned out to be a mistake and we were launched into Sector Fornax.

"Fornax had discarded all pretenses of any human presence and instead gave us a labyrinth of gold while light was provided by hexagons hewn from the walls. In Fornax, I discovered that a number of hugely powerful demons had gathered there and were waiting to bring all of us of the Red Sprite, but mostly me, death. The first demon I encountered, after Alice but she's a whole other story, was Morax and he revealed that he, alongside Mitra, Horkos, and Asura, had been revived and granted access to their true power. Morax proved this by shedding his weak form and revealing himself to be the Tyrant Moloch, we fought again and I managed to kill him a second time, but then we received a notice from the ship's AI, Arthur, that something strange had happened to the makeup of the Schwarzwelt's structure. We followed the disturbance to its cause and discovered that Jack's Squad had managed to create their own headquarters in the Schwarzwelt, complete with a breathable atmosphere. Arthur allowed Jimenez to stay with a small contingent of members from the strike team to keep an eye on them while we returned to Fornax. I found myself at a crossroads and chose the left most path, this path, after leading me through various switchbacks and traps, led me to Mitra who shed his scientist mask to become Mithras, a being governed by rage. Luckily, Mithras' rage blinded him allowing me to get rid of him and continue on my way. I tried the center path but was blocked by a demon I assumed to be Asura based off previous happenings, I turned back and trekked down the path to the right and found Horkos on the bottom floor. Horkos revealed himself to be the Hell gate-like demon Orcus who tried to suck me and my team of demons into the abyss that it called its stomach. We remedied our situation by giving Orcus a rather strong stomachache and then returned to the Red sprite in order to get my DEMONICA's demon revealing capabilities increased so that I could fight Asura.

"Things got awkward when I faced Asura again because Asura, well, Asura revealed that he wasn't really a he by revealing her true form, the goddess Asherah. After the minute of eye twitching that my demons and I shared, we dove right into battle and came out with a victory. We trekked down the last few levels of Fornax and found the Mother demon that was respawning the stronger demons that I had fought up until that point, Tiamat. We killed Tiamat and gained access to the next sector of the Schwarzwelt, Grus. Grus was a land of illusions and was created to look like sectors that we had previously visited, more specifically Antlia, Bootes, Carina, and Delphinus. We ended up discovering the hideout of the angels in the Schwarzwelt and I had an audience with heir leader, Mastema. Mastema shared his goals with Zelenin and I and asked us if either of us was willing to join the angels and their cause, I declined while Zelenin agreed and became an angel. It was then that Arthur sent an urgent message to everyone on the Strike team to return to the Red Sprite, when I arrived we were briefed on an incident at Jack's Squad's pocket dimension during which Jimenez was captured and being held hostage by Jack's Squad. We broke into Jack's Squad's dimension in short order and after some hell raising I tracked down Jimenez. He and one of his demons, Bugaboo, had been horribly tortured and both were dying as a result, at that point I had a choice, I could attempt to free them both and get them back to the ship and try and save them, or I could fuse them together, make Jimenez a half-demon, and save their lives then and there. I fused the two of them and then went to confront Jack while Jimenez got accustomed to his body by ripping open their ship. I killed Jack, left the squad in the hands of his second in command, and headed back to report to Arthur.

"We traveled back to Grus and encountered a group of demons aligned with no Mother or faction who just wanted peace, and they said they would let us pass through their domain on one condition, we destroy Jack's Squad. The angels appealed through Zelenin that we let her use her song to pacify the squad and show them the path of the Lord, but I had promised those demons the blood of Jack's Squad and I don't go back on my promises. After the Strike Team and I had buried Jack's Squad and ransacked their ship for materials, we encountered Zelenin and Mastema, both of whom were displeased with our course of action but accepted it. We returned to Grus and the demons let us pass into the land beyond their home and we plunged into a land of illusion. The ground would shift underneath us and there were walls that were merely illusions or sometimes there were walls that looked like passages. Based off my experience with past areas of the Schwarzwelt, I trekked down further and further until I came upon a powerful demon that, rather then be a Mother, was known as the Demiurge. My demons and I fought the Demiurge and, by defeating it, gained a powerful ally, but it turned out that Grus' resident Mother lived on the first level so we had to navigate there. Maya was incredibly frustrating to locate with all her illusionary scenery and decoys, but we eventually tracked down the real one and killed her. After returning to the Red Sprite, we took off for the last sector.

"Unfortunately the Red Sprite was hijacked by three spirits while we were in flight who tried to sway us towards their path, the world the angels desired, a world with no free will, a world where only songs praising the Lord were sung, a world that they had made Zelenin their tool to create. You see, back in the olden days when YHVH was battling against Bel, and no I didn't know about this before I went into the Schwarzwelt, for supremacy YHVH created the angels and gave them the ability to sing in ways that made people follow it. It wasn't a voluntary following either, the songs stripped people of their free will and made them follow YHVH, after Bel had been defeated or destroyed, YHVH took away the angels' singing abilities because it wanted to appear as a kind and benevolent ruler. This decision has proven itself a shot in the foot, but YHVH hasn't returned that ability to the angels so it seems that it still has an ace up its sleeve. Anyway, when Zelenin became an angel she gained the ability to sing like that and was then made the angels' glorified tool. However, halfway through the spirits' spiel a blonde woman appeared on the bridge and started arguing with the spirits, claiming that a free world of dog eat dog, where the weak are trampled under foot, is the sort of world humanity needs. At that time, speaking for the 'Evil' demons we had Louisa Ferre, a not so difficult pseudonym for Lucifer. We touched down in the last sector, Horologium, and a number of the crew splintered off, to follow Jimenez and the 'Evil' demons, or to follow Zelenin, the 'Good' demons, and the angels.

"Horologium itself was a mess of molten rock, invisible ground, huge cliff faces, and dangerous demons, but there was one other factor. When we began our preliminary investigation I found an elevator at the far end of the first floor that went all the way to the bottom floor, just outside the door to the room where I had a reading for a powerful demon I met Commander Gore, or rather the Gore that had been revived by the Mothers and initially used as their puppet. I had encountered Gore before but this time he had returned to his own identity and was intent on showing me what the Mother of Horologium, Mem Aleph, looked like and as such led me through the door to see her then slumbering form. We didn't dare stay too long, lest she wake and destroy us then, we returned to the Red Sprite and Gore proved that he had returned to his senses to the remaining crew and told us of the Mothers' plans. Gore gave us three choices, host demons inside of us and make the world survival of the fittest, become hosts for the Holy Spirit and make the world a sphere of silence, or stay true to our mission and protect humanity. We chose to protect humanity and Gore informed us of the path we would need to take, we would need to retrieve four Cosmic Eggs, a nuclear warhead from the last ship, the Gigantic, defeat Mem Aleph, the angels, anyone else in our way, we would then need to blow up the eggs at the top of Eridanus, allowing us to escape and destroy the Schwarzwelt.

"We tracked down the Cosmic Eggs and the Gigantic in the first four sectors of the Schwarzwelt and set about exploring the rest of Horologium, the exploration was interesting for me because I recruited two last demons to my cause, Masakado who wished to protect Tokyo, and Shiva who was apathetic to the whole situation. On our way to the bottom of Horologium, we encountered Jimenez who we had to fight to the death, and then I found my way down to the bottom of the sector and Mem Aleph's chamber. Mem Aleph tried to get me to join her but I refused and we fought, I killed her once, but she got better and we had to kill her again to make sure she died. After ensuring Mem Aleph's destruction, we fled Horologium with almost all of the demons in the Schwarzwelt on our asses and made our escape to Eridanus. On our way to the center of Eridanus, we encountered Zelenin and I dealt with her while everyone else went on ahead, after destroying the angels' plan Mastema confronted me and told me that he still had plans for the human world but they were on hold at that time. I caught up to the ship and, one long and complicated explanation short, nuked the Cosmic Eggs, and escaped back into Antarctica where our rescue was waiting."

~}{~

"As for how this applies to why I abandoned Minato, it was because of these three," Batsu explained as he pulled out three test tubes and showed them to everyone gathered, and, although they didn't know what was in them, they recognized that they were powerful. Batsu shook the test tubes, "The Demiurge, Masakado, and Shiva stay in these test tubes, and they warned me about Minato, they told me that he smelled like Death and that his presence was inviting danger. I just wanted to at least keep Natsumi safe so I separated the two of them."

"I see…we can explain as to why Minato-san made your demons think that in our own explanation." Aigis said as she glanced out the window, noting that the sun had set during Batus's story. Mitsuru nodded and then asked Batsu, Natsumi, and Natsumi's friends a single question, "What if I told you that there was more then twenty four hours in a day? These days we would be lying to you, but three years ago, it was a different story.

~}{~

"Five years ago, we of SEES, the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, were but two people, Akihiko and myself. Takeba joined us four years ago, and Arisato joined us three years ago, but his presence caused things to change. On his first night here at the dorm he experienced the Dark Hour, what we called the hour between the two days, and suffered no ill effects. We continued to observe him for a few days, until a huge Shadow, what the monsters that inhabited the Dark Hour were called, attacked the dorm and we had to wake him. He and Takeba fled to the roof but they were headed off by the Shadow and I will never forget what I saw that night. Arisato took Takeba's Evoker and summoned his Persona, a facet of his soul, Orpheus, and then Orpheus started to spasm. A pair of arms ripped out from Orpheus' neck and a monstrous Persona burst from within Orpheus, the then unidentified Persona ripped into the Shadow and attempted to devour it. Arisato collapsed at that point and we had to wait for a week until he woke up and returned to school, during that time we discovered another Persona user in Arisato and Takeba's class, Iori. After formally accepting Arisato and Iori into SEES, we took them to where Tartarus manifested itself during the Dark Hour, Gekkoukan High school. We had Arisato take point on their first foray into Tartarus and watched as they began to grow adept at using their Personae and we saw Arisato acquire more Personae.

"Arisato was a very special type of Persona user you see, he was a Wild Card and, based on what Aigis has told us of what the residents of the Velvet Room say, trying to compare a normal Wild Card to Arisato was like comparing the sea to the starry sky above. Over the course of the year we were attacked by numerous other super powered Shadows that only appeared on the night of the Full Moon and Arisato lead us into battle against them, the Personae he had gathered leading the charge. After the Empress and Emperor Full Moon battle, we recruited Yamagishi who replaced me as our communications specialist, we then recruited Aigis shortly before the Justice and Chariot Full Moon battle, and we recruited Koromaru shortly after that. During summer vacation, we recruited Amada and prepared for the next Full Moon battle.

"During September Arisato and Akihiko managed to convince one of the original three members of SEES, Aragaki Shinjiro, to return to SEES. You, Kujikawa, although you weren't conscious for it you should know the effects of the Hermit Full Moon battle because it ruined your concert. After that, on October 4th, the night of the Strength and Fortune Full Moon battle, Aragaki was killed protecting Amada. They had left the battle so that Amada could confront Aragaki, whom he blamed for his mother's death. Amada had planned to kill Aragaki and then himself but they were interrupted by Takaya Sakaki, the leader of a group of Persona users called Strega. Takaya attempted to kill the both of them but Aragaki took the bullets meant for himself and for Amada, this led to a bit of a crisis between those of us here at SEES as to whether we should go out and find Amada or leave him be. He eventually came back and both he and Akihiko managed to raise their Personae to what is referred to as 'perfect' state Persona.

"I had yet to mention this but during our confrontation with the Hermit Full Moon Shadow, Iori was captured by a member of Strega, Yoshino Chidori. We apprehended Yoshino, managed to keep her confined to a hospital while we investigated any information we got out of her, and Iori nursed her back to mental stability. Unfortunately, towards the end of October, the other two members of Strega broke into the hospital and kidnapped Yoshino. We tracked them to the entrance of Tartarus and battled Yoshino but after the battle Takaya attempted to kill Yoshino and Iori took the bullet for her. Yoshino displayed a strange power then and traded her life for his, causing their Personae to merge and become a perfect state Persona.

"We didn't have very much time to recover from the backlash of that night before we had to face off against the last Full Moon shadow, the Hanged Man. Takaya and Shirato tried to head us off but they jumped off the bridge after we dealt with them. The Full Moon battle was far more of an ordeal compared to what little resistance Strega's remnants provided. We nearly lost Takeba and Amada during that battle but we vanquished the brute and decided to hold a party for destroying the last Full Moon Shadow and ending the Dark Hour. The next night, after the party, the Dark Hour took hold again and we raced to Tartarus upon hearing its bells tolling only to discover the school chairman and SEES' supervisor, Ikutsuki Shuji and a brainwashed Aigis. Ikutsuki ordered Aigis to capture us as well as my father, who had joined us for the festivities, and imprisoned us atop the observatory. Ikutsuki revealed his true intentions to us that night, the truth behind the Full Moon Shadows and Tartarus.

"Ikutsuki was of the belief that humanity had stagnated and become an empty void that covered the planet, thus needed to be wiped out by Nyx. He believed that by using us to lure out and exterminate the Full Moon Shadows, that he could then use us as sacrifices to summon Nyx and bring about the Fall. We were saved by Koromaru distracting Ikutsuki long enough for my father to draw his own pistol and for Arisato to do whatever he did to snap Aigis out of Ikutsuki's control. Aigis freed us but… my father and Ikutsuki… they… they shot each other down. After that, I explained the Dark Hour's origins.

"Originally, Tartarus and the Dark Hour were created by an experiment by the Kirijo group that was originally meant to research Shadows but was twisted by my grandfather's nihilism. My grandfather and his research team amassed a huge amount of Shadows and attempted to force them into one form, but the head researcher, Takeba's father, saw what my grandfather was attempting to do and tried to abort the experiment. The resulting explosion created the Dark Hour, Tartarus, and caused the massive Shadow to fracture into thirteen different pieces, the Full Moon Shadows and one other Shadow, the Arcana that should not have been, Death. How the deaths of my father and Ikutsuki were covered up were rather public, so there is no need to elaborate on that but suffice to say that we all had our own problems to deal with, and Takeba raised her Persona to its perfect state. Then came November and along with it, Mochizuki Ryoji bulldozed into our lives.

"Mochizuki was an exuberant young man who, while charming, quickly became famous throughout the school as a womanizer. He also approached those of us in SEES and began socializing with us, with the exception of Aigis who viewed him as a threat and Arisato who was usually out helping people or working to buy better equipment for our forays into Tartarus. Mochizuki disappeared towards the end of November but returned during the first few days of December and faced off against Aigis, both having remembered why Aigis saw him as a threat. When we discovered that Aigis was missing from the dorm we immediately began our search and found them on the Rainbow Bridge, Mochizuki standing over Aigis' damaged chassis and apologizing for having to hurt her in such away. We quickly ferried the two back to the dorm and, after ensuring that Aigis was in the proper hands, we began interrogating Mochizuki. Mochizuki had been born into our world thirteen years ago as an incomplete being, he was born on the night you abandoned Arisato, and Mochizuki was the Appriser, Death. The truth of the matter was that thirteen years ago when Death fled the ruins of the lab, it collided with a car that carried a family returning home from a party, the impact killed the parents and when the eldest child awoke to find his parents unmoving and a coffin in the place of his sister, he charged Death and Aigis, having been given the order to destroy or seal Death, used this chance to seal Death in the closest compatible vessel, the boy. Arisato was the first of us in SEES to encounter the Dark Hour and Shadows because on that night, Aigis sealed Death inside him. Death subtly influenced Arisato to return to Iwatodai and hunt down the Full Moon Shadows, it also was the thing that ripped out of Orpheus and slaughtered the Magician Full Moon Shadow. After recounting his tale Mochizuki gave us a choice, kill him and remain oblivious to the Dark Hour until the Fall, or attempt to fight Nyx at the end of January. Mochizuki gave us until the end of December to make up our minds on whether or not to fight Nyx. The month itself was a whirlwind of decisions and second-guessing but ultimately, the choice rested with Arisato and he chose to fight Nyx.

"January saw the rise of the cult of Nyx as well as a number of expeditions towards the top of Tartarus, where Nyx would arrive, and into the Monad, a special area in Tartarus that Arisato discovered. We faced off against numerous powerful Shadows as we explored and grew in strength. On January thirty-first, we entered Tartarus at midnight and, while ascending to where we would battle Nyx, encountered Shirato and Takaya separately, both of them attempting to waylay us long enough for the Fall to take place. When we reached the top of Tartarus, we found that Mochizuki had become Nyx's Avatar to initiate the Fall and engaged it in combat. Throughout the battle, the Avatar would change its Arcana and its attributes in the same sequence as the Major Arcana until it reached the Death, its true Arcana. At that point, it began reflecting our attacks back at as and ruthlessly trying to kill us, but we still defeated it. Even then, Nyx wasn't done, it revealed that its true self was within the Moon and began dropping towards Tartarus, raining pressure down upon us all. We're unsure as to what happened but Arisato passed out, and then slowly got to his feet and drifted up to Nyx's core, we weren't present to see what had happened but we found ourselves at Tartarus' base while the tower reformed into the high school and Arisato floated down in front of the school.

After that, we forgot. Our minds blocked off all reminders of the Dark Hour, Tartarus, and Nyx, and we forgot the friendships and bonds we had forged. It wasn't until our graduation day that we remembered the truth and our promise to meet on the school roof. When we arrived, we found Aigis with Arisato's head in her lap; he smiled at us, said, _"love through all eternity, until my life is exhausted. I will never leave you."_ Then he closed his eyes. We wished that he had just fallen asleep because he hadn't been looking well for a few days prior, but he didn't wake up. When the doctors examined him they could find nothing wrong with him, according to them he just stopped and didn't start again. We didn't discover the truth until March thirty-first when we had all gathered at the dorm to say goodbye but were trapped in an infinite loop, constantly repeating March thirty-first.

"It wasn't until another anti-Shadow weapon, Metis, claiming to be Aigis' sister burst from the basement and attempted to kill us, but was stopped by Aigis unleashing the Wild Card ability. We ventured into the basement and discovered a desert filled with doors called the Abyss of Time where we recounted memories and faced our pasts. While traveling through the doors, we would constantly see Arisato's silhouette moving through the Abyss and eventually we confronted it. It was a simulacrum of Arisato created from our grief and our wishing to see him again, it challenged us to a battle and we defeated it, each of us gaining a key that, when joined with the others, would allow us to travel through time. Various factions formed based on what we wished to do with the keys, Takeba and I wished to go back and keep Arisato from dying, Akihiko and Amada believed that we should move forward and leave the past as it was, Junpei and Koromaru were undecided, while Aigis and Metis wished to go back and see why Arisato died but not interfere.

"We held a tournament to see who would get the keys and Aigis and Metis won. We traveled back in time and watched Arisato's clash with Nyx, and its resolution. In the end, Arisato gave his life in order to become a barrier between Nyx and Erebus, the manifestation of humanity's wish for death. Although Arisato should have died on January thirty-first, he managed to drag almost five weeks more out of life through sheer determination. We had to battle Erebus ourselves due to Arisato being indisposed, and after defeating Erebus, we had to race out of the Abyss and use the key to unlock the front door because the Abyss' corruption was spreading. Upon opening the door, rather then finding ourselves outside, we found ourselves in a large, old-fashioned elevator; or rather, we were in the Velvet Room, a place where Wild Card Persona users go to fuse new Personae. The proprietor, Igor, and his assistant, Elizabeth, explained to us their own role in the development of Wild Card Persona users as well as how they believed that Arisato could return, and Elizabeth's… unusual declaration. Metis also revealed herself to be the human part of Aigis that Aigis had attempted to throw away because of the pain that Arisato's death caused her."

~}{~

Mitsuru breathed deeply as she finished recollecting SEES' escapades, and her thoughts turned to Minato, wondering if they really did have a chance to revive him with the world in its current state. Souji hummed and tapped his chin, "The seal at the end of the universe… right?"

"Yes, that is correct, how do you know that?" Aigis asked as she gave Souji a measuring look, to which he responded, "Margaret, Elizabeth's sister, explained to me why Elizabeth left the Velvet Room after we fought her at Heaven's End. She said that her sister went off to rescue the boy who made the seal at the end of the universe."

The rest of the Investigation Team nodded at that remark but quickly began looking from left to right as the majority of the lights went out. Aigis bolted over to the windows and then charged out of the lounge and out onto the roof to stare in disbelief at the pale green full Moon hanging in the sky. The others joined her on the roof some staring at the moon in disbelief, others in horror, while Batsu spun around at the sound of a chuckle, pulling the vials containing the Demiurge, Masakado, and Shiva from his coat, and asking, "Who are you?"

On the roof of the stairwell, a young man was sitting with his right leg supporting his arm and behind him a tall, silver haired man in red with a giant sword on his back was standing with his hands in his pockets. The young man lazily got to his feet and jumped down, his yellow eyes betraying his demonic side, and said, "I'm Kashima Naoki and the guy behind me is Dante, as for why we're here, we heard about a really interesting guy from some demons and we decided to check it out. When we found out that he sealed a goddess to protect humanity we had to give him props, and what we found out made it hard to even meet the guy. Then we found out that he did something that we didn't expect. He either broke off two pieces of his psyche or cloned his soul twice and dropped them into two neighboring universes where they were reborn and grew up. We managed to make contact with someone who could operate in those worlds but he refused to interfere beyond sending one person because he thought it would ruin how amusing it could be. So, we decided that those people who fought at his side should see the people that he became and the things they're doing but we ran into a snag ya see. In order to show you guys those worlds a huge amount of power would be necessary, so I took the liberty of having these four join us and provide some power."

Naoki gestured and four more beings dropped down onto the roof, Metatron and Zelenin of the angels, and Lucifer and Jimenez from the demons. It should be noted that on each of their wrists they wore a gem bangle and all of them looked rather uncomfortable. Jimenez chuckled, "It's good to see you Batsu, but I gotta say that you look old."

"Of course you didn't. In another universe, there's a guy at his computer railroading this entire encounter and trying to make things awkward. He's usually better at nonsense and absurdity if you ask me." A dapper looking gentleman smirked as he appeared in a flash of rainbow light and looked over those gathered, all ready thinking about who he was going to send. Aigis beat everyone to their questions when she asked, "Schwenger-san? Is this the assistance that you mentioned?"

"In a way, but you seem to have gotten my name wrong. There's nothing wrong with that I assure you, but please remember in the future that my name is Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. In truth, I was only passing through when those two told me about Arisato and, after doing some research of my own, I decided that it would be interesting to watch." Zelretch corrected as he nodded at Aigis and then to the group at large, "Now then, I'm finished collecting prana which you can probably tell by my bringing over the phenomenon that you call the Dark Hour. Based on the fact that the Moon is a large catalyst in this phenomenon we will be using it to look at the two worlds."

"In the first world we see a completely new person born from the cast off fragment or clone, someone who is continuously smiling and helping his friends." As Zelretch gestured at the Moon, an image of a young man smiling and walking with his friends down the street appeared. The young man had blue tinted hair, headphones on his ears and was walking with a group of people, to his immediate right another young man wearing a beanie, and a redheaded girl to his left. Zelretch then continued, "But, even there, trouble just seems to find some people."

The image on the Moon shifted to a laboratory where a silver haired man studied a computer before nodding to a woman in a recording booth. The woman began to sing, causing the world to distort, demons to appear and the silver haired man to smile, this continued for a number of minutes until the woman was devoured by the distortion, which promptly snapped closed. The other scientists with the man began to freak out but he waved them off as he gestured to a computer screen and causing them to calm down. The view shifted again to a man with a look of fanatical fervor on his face as he stared into a mirror, a face that was not his own in the mirror while his daughter merely shook her head. The view changed to an alley where a grey skinned man was holding another man's neck in his mouth, some blood leaking from the demon's lips the only indication of something sinister.

Zelretch waved his hand causing the Moon to fade back to its green tinged hue and then turned to those gathered, "I will be sending Kashima to that universe due to his own familiarity with demons and their ilk, but moving on. In the second world the situation is much more similar to this world's own situation three years ago."

The Moon showed a young man, short sword in hand, walking through a city that was also entrapped in the Dark Hour. A Maya Shadow charged him and he brought his hand in front of him, crushing the blue card floating just above his palm. A robotic figure with a lyre on its back rose up behind him and then strummed its lyre, causing a ball of flame to incinerate the Shadow. The young man approached the Shadow's remains and began rooting through them, pulling out a small wad of yen notes.

Zelretch smiled at those gathered and asked, "So, who will go to this world?"

"I will, I owe him this much."

"I will go, I promised that I would never leave his side."

"I will also volunteer, I cannot allow myself to just stand by and watch."

"Heh, sounds like some good training. Count me in."

"I'm also throwing my name onto the volunteer list, after all, I just can't leave my former wingman stranded."

"I want to go as well, but I don't think the others would let me…"

"I'm in, but he is going to have a lot of explaining to do to me."

"I also want to reconnect with Minato-kun."

A howl of determination rang out through the night.

"I need to go, I…I need to see him again and find out what sort of person he's become."

The Investigation Team and Labrys shared a look and nodded, "Each of us volunteer as well."

"Ah, wonderful, a number of volunteers to choose from. Although I should warn you that he has, by the standards of their culture, married an alien and a half and has number of possible wives that could join him, though they would be most willing to share him." Zelretch chortled as he looked at the dumbstruck faces that met his statement. Aigis frowned and inquired, "Why are you so sure of this?"

"My apprentice's apprentice in a different world was Sahashi Minato, the same identity that the fragment or clone of the second world took. So far, he has 'married' seven of the aliens and is in a relationship with both my apprentice and a Heroic Spirit, a manifestation of a hero so legendary that they became a pseudo-deity. Never a dull moment there." Zelretch chuckled as he looked at those gathered on the roof, and pointed a finger, "Have a fun time…"

~}{~

I pocketed the yen that I had managed to scrounge from the Shadows so far, but at the rate I'm going it'll take a week to make next month's rent. Maybe I should look at some of the jobs out there…

Hmm? The sound of the wind parting? Oh, Shit!

I jumped forwards and rolled, catching sight of my attacker as I stood up. Ash blonde hair, tall, normal sized bust, short skirt, black clothes, Zettai Ryouiki grade A, and, of course, a sword. Greeting her would be in my best interest, it might stop her from attacking me, "Hello! Can you please stop with the sword swinging? I really do like having my head attached."

"Oh, and here I thought that everything out here was trying to kill me…" This strange, beautiful woman muttered as she watched, no, observed me. _**"Fool, shouldn't you be running?"**_ I'm sure it's all a misunderstanding, Orpheus. **"+I don't-hee think so-ho!+"** Frost old boy, I can talk my way out of most situations and charm my way into a woman's pants, surely I can talk and charm my way out of this situation. Now I feel like a slime ball, have a lovely mental image that will make you uncomfortable! _**"F-Fool! I never!"**_** "+Hee-HO!+"** Ah Digimon, how we love thou. Especially you, Xros Wars. Now back to reality! And I asked the mystery woman, "So… having a nice night?"

"You could say that, I do find cutting down those blobs rather therapeutic." Score! She answered; hopefully they won't find my body missing its head tomorrow. Best introduce myself, "Nice to meet you, I'm Sahashi Minato. I am currently hunting my rent."

"Karasuba, I'm trying to relax by killing these things but they really aren't that great for letting loose on." Karasuba answered, eyeing the disintegrating remains of my most recent hunt with disgust. I couldn't help but chuckle, "I'm just glad that there are no Full Moon Shadows about, all though they could probably give you the challenge that you're looking for."

Oh shit.

I just said that didn't I?

Fuck. I just fucked us over.

Sure enough, I can here it now, the sound of suckers ripping themselves off pavement, the grinding of fingernails against coffins, and a low moan from my right. I stood up quickly, my short sword in my right hand, and Orpheus' card in my left as I called to the woman, "Your wish has come true."


	4. CHAPTER TITLE UNAVAILABLE

CHAPTER TITLE UNAVAILABLE DUE TO MASSIVE SHADOW

PLEASE REPORT TO THE REGULARLY SCHEDULED FIC FOR FURTHUR INSTRUCTION

The Shadow's claws no longer caressed the coffins strewn about the streets; instead, they were curled to maximize the ripping of flesh. Its cloak of tattered, patchwork grays fluttering gently in a non-existent wind. Tentacles writhed across the pavement and whipped about, their suckers picking up and hurling miscellaneous items at the duo in front of it. The Shadow's head then came into view, belts wound their way around and across the left and lower parts of its head while the left eyehole of a Magician's mask glowed with the yellow of its right eye, over which the mask was stapled on an angle.

Then came its voice.

It was a death rattle, an anguished scream, a roar of rage, and a whimper of despair. It was quiet as a whisper but it echoed louder than the mightiest of thunderclaps. It let loose one sentence in a distorted voice that sent Minato's blood temperature to that the same level as Antarctica's own.

"'**Sup dude?"**

The Shadow's voice was a mixture of Tomochika Kenji's voice and Iori Junpei's voice that caused Minato to grit his teeth and summon Orpheus for his first move, "**TARUNDA!**"

The Shadow seemed to shrink slightly as Orpheus strummed his lyre, but still managed to wallop Karasuba's arms and knock her decapitating strike off course. **"Hey now, that's not very nice. But seriously, dude, you need to get your act together, the chick is gonna upstage you if ya don't! Then again, you ARE useless without your stronger Personae! I mean, you needed Death to beat the Magician before me so what hope do you have now?"**

"What an annoying creature." Karasuba chuckled as she swung her blade around and about, taking off tentacle sections and causing small scratches to the Shadow's body, smiling all the while. Minato was similarly trying to get a killing blow into the mass of tentacles that had risen about the Shadow, but paused long enough to grin sardonically, "The two who this thing is based off are much more annoying then this cheap knockoff. This thing is the Power Rangers to their Kamen Rider when it comes to being annoying. **Agi!**"

The small gout of flame that erupted caused a single tentacle to shrivel while singeing three others, causing Minato to change Personae while commanding, "Frosty, **Bufu!**"

The ice encased three tentacles and a finger, all of which exploded into frozen shrapnel as Karasuba's sword stabbed through them in a vain attempt to gouge one of the Shadow's eyes. The Shadow's chuckle emanated from the depths of its throat as it lazily dodged all of the fatal attacks, **"Too slow, maybe next time!"**

Minato blinked thoughtfully as he ducked back out of the tentacles' range, grinning maniacally as he summoned to cards into his left hand, "If we're too slow, then lets put on the gas! Apsaras! Orpheus! **CADENZA!**"

The blue glow encircled both Minato and Karasuba, making them both incredibly light on their feet. Of course, Minato was feeling far too smug to notice that the Shadow had gotten with range, only to realize that when it decked him across the face. The Shadow's left arm struck out in what would have most likely been a mean left hook had Minato not leant back and pulled the arm past his face, proceeding to stab the Shadow where its nonexistent kidneys were. The Shadow grunted, **"Ya know, I really hate how you always pull shit like that put of your ass. Facing off against the First you brought out Death, then when you were facing down Mom/Lady Nyx you actually used the Universe, and now I bet that this little spiel has given you enough time to pull out some new contrived way to kill me. Fuck me, fuck my villainous monologue, and fuck you for good measure. Fuck."**

Karasuba looked over at Minato who shrugged, raised his hand, and said, "Azathoth, I just met you and this crazy, I know that we haven't had a chance to get to know each other but could you show us **The Hunger of the Daemon Sultan **maybe?"

Minato crushed the Blind Idiot God's card as it descended into his hand and the Daemon Sultan materialized in the physical plane. Its hair black as darkest night but brighter then the sunniest day, its shoulders had bones jutting out from them like primitive pauldrons, its forearms were grotesque mockeries of a human's. It had only the ripped and ancient remnants of a robe covering the entirety of below its waist, its face would have been handsome if not for its empty eyes that gazed into infinity, adorning its chest was a large mouth complete with jagged and broken teeth. The Shadow was too busy sizing up Azathoth to notice that the mouth on its chest was slowly descending, and, rather then revealing a throat or the normal inside of a mouth, there was only complete emptiness and the guarantee of being removed from existence.

Azathoth suddenly lurched forward, for it was impossible for it to be graceful, the gaping chest mouth covering a number of the Shadow's tentacles and then snapping shut. The False Magician screamed wordlessly in rage and pain as its tentacles were forcibly removed from existence, only for the scream to turn to one of horror as it saw the manic grin on Minato's face and the red glow emanating from the now closed chest mouth. Minato chuckled the Shadow's shriek died, "You know, I really should have experimented with this guy more. It is SO broken for this level of enemy. Azathoth show him **The Pride of the Daemon Sultan**!"

Azathoth's upper body shot upwards, releasing the wave of destruction from its chest mouth and cleaning its teeth at the same time. The discharge didn't rip towards the Shadow and into it, instead it ate the False Magician and everything in its path atom by atom.

Karasuba watched with an interest and a slight smile as Minato grinned, Azathoth all ready fading out of existence with the death of its feast. The Fool turned to the Black Sekirei and laughed, "I'm gonna go see if that thing left anything back the way it came from, when they're that big they usually have a good amount of cash and other goodies scattered about their general area. What are you going to do?"

"I think that it would be best if I returned to MBI, although I do wish that we could have crossed blades." The bloodstained wagtail answered, her eyes shining with bloodlust, as she looked the human up and down. In turn, Minato just shook his head, "Sorry, my landlady gets angry when I come home covered in blood. Whether it would be your blood or mine is the current mystery."

Karasuba was still chuckling as she leaped up and across the buildings that lined the path to MBI, while Minato rooted through the various things he found around the area where he fought the Shadow.

**Minato Hast Formed the Death Social Link.**

**May it guide his destiny.**

~}{~

Across the city, in Higa Izumi's private office, a chuckle escaped the lips of the woman bound against the wall opposite his desk, only a single golden eye shining in the dark.

"The Fool will rise, but remain fallen."

"The wagtails will flock and bicker, their keepers watching."

Silence reigned through the room before the woman continued in a worried tone.

"All the while the Smoky Mirror plots and grows stronger."

~}{~

Author's Note: Short chapter is short, sorry. I think that I'm not very good at writing fight scenes but oh well. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

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